Like a lot of cable-service expatriates, Steve Ambrosini thought he could get a better deal somewhere else. Contemplation over, he called DirecTV.

Oh, yes, he could definitely save some money with the satellite provider.

"We went through the list of freebies, specials, promos and discounts," he says, "and came up with a monthly total of $50.99 for the first year."

Sold. Ambrosini, a Wethersfield resident, agreed to a two-year contract. About 36 hours after the installer bolted a satellite dish to his roof and set up the receiver, however, he was ready to cancel the contract. That's when he found out a subscriber has only 24 hours to cancel without a deactivation charge.

The post-24-hour deactivation fee, Ambrosini discovered, was $450. Any dispute, he was told, would be resolved through binding arbitration.

Sounds as if the name of this on-demand movie was "No Way Out."

Even with the installer still at his house, Ambrosini knew something wasn't right. Some channels he was supposed to receive were missing. The installer, after a phone call, enabled some.

That night, says Ambrosini, "I had to sift through many channels that I did not have, but figured these were for the expensive packages."

Some channels were still missing. The system locked repeatedly, too, so he tried to reboot it by unplugging the receiver briefly before plugging it back in — a fix-it, no doubt, learned from his cable days.

Ambrosini couldn't set up his favorites and couldn't make sense of the new-look service that, he says, listed channels on screen numerically but elsewhere alphabetically by channel name. He couldn't record a movie, either, due to dropouts and freezes. This was not what he had in mind.

"I thought I was going to have a $50.99 per month bill," he says, "and by the time everything was straightened out, it looks like it is $75 or so."

A day later, too late to cancel the contract without a penalty, Ambrosini spent another hour on the phone with DirecTV customer service. A technician, then another, arrived at his house. One left, then the second returned to his truck several times, says Ambrosini.

"Finally," Ambrosini says, "when he could not tell me what package was set up in my account, he goes back to his truck. About 20 minutes later, I realize that he had left!"

When Ambrosini contacted The Bottom Line, he feared he was stuck with the contract and "two years of stress just paying them out of Social Security and retirement checks."

Twenty-four hours?

"Really," he says, "who can evaluate something that will cost almost $2,100 in two years in only 24 hours?"

DirecTV, when contacted by The Bottom Line, quickly contacted Ambrosini and resolved the dispute — no binding arbitration required. It waived the agreement, disconnected his account and set up an equipment return.

"This is obviously not an experience we want any customer to have," says Robert Mercer, DirecTV's senior director of public relations, "and we are addressing this with the techs and other individuals who handled this account."

The DirecTV customer agreement available at its website (bit.ly/9QVpYB) does not mention the 24-hour cancellation restriction or the deactivation fee amount.

"The 24-hour window is not generally explained at point of sale or installation," says DirecTV spokeswoman Meghan McLarty. "This timeframe is only explained if the customer specifically asks about the amount of time they have to cancel the service without the early cancellation fee appling."

McLarty says customers are told when they purchase the service than the cancellation fee is $20 for every month remaining on their contract. The cancellation fee is also mentioned in the equipment lease agreement. The 24-hour cancellation window exists only as a courtesy, says McLarty.

Ambrosini's experience echoed the type DirecTV pledged to eliminate when it agreed in 2010 to a $13.25 million nationwide settlement after allegations of deceptive and unfair sales practices.

Richard Blumenthal, then Connecticut's attorney general, released a statement at the time that included this indictment: "This was classic bait and switch, hooking consumers with phony discounts and then hitting them with hidden charges. Consumers thought they were getting a deal only to get clipped. Customers who caught on and canceled were sometimes clobbered with substantial cancellation fees."

In the three years prior to the settlement, the attorney general's office received about 200 complaints about DirecTV. Since the settlement, it has received more than 100 complaints about DirecTV's service and fees.

The state Department of Consumer Protection, says spokeswoman Claudette Carveth, has received only a "handful" of comlaints about DirecTV since the settlement. It says consumers considering DirecTV should not agree to any promotion without knowing:

>> The promotion's length.

>> The cost of the service after the promotion.

>> The required contract length.

>> Additional charges for HD or DVR equipment.

>> Whether a promotional price is conditional on a rebate.

>> How long they have to cancel without penalty – 24 hours?

>> The cancellation fees.

>> How to cancel (ask if it's required in writing), both during and after the grace period.

"If the offer is being made by phone," says Carveth, "consumers should request all of these termms in writing before signing up. Consumers should be absolutely clear on these conditions before agreeing to them."

Ambrosini, relieved that he's no longer tied to DirecTV, has settled on a third option for his program viewing.

"It's interesting to realize that I am not really all that motivated to reconnect to any TV service after this ordeal," he says. "I have come to learn that most of what I want on TV is available from the Internet and mostly free. Most of what I went through is industry-wide, anyway."